Genetic Memory
Abstract
Animal behavior, and human behavior in particular, is generally assumed to be a product of voluntary and involuntary responses to environmental inputs or conditions. Behavioral responses are also generally assumed to be specific or context dependent by past experiences and memories of the individuals experiences and experiences learned from others. This research addresses the broad question of how behavior can be further constrained by genetic factors with regards to how long memory persists, and challenges the assumptions that cognitive response to stimuli is determined only by development and learned experience. Darmouth is testing the hypothesis that experiences leads to both short term and long term changes in genetic expression, some of these changes persisting for long periods of time. We aim to (1) identify genes that show expression changes in response to trauma, (2) the molecular mechanisms that effect these changes in gene expression, (3) the molecular mechanisms that maintain these changed patterns of expression over long periods of time, and (4) identify specific neuronal pathways that use altered gene expression patterns to determine and produce specific behavior. We are using the Drosophila system to ask these questions. We have developed a novel Drosophila predator-threat behavioral response to test how exposure to predators confers genetically programed changes in behavior, and we will use both molecular genetic and genomic approaches to elucidate molecular mechanisms of memory and how such information is encoded to specify behavior. Because Drosophila and human neuronal networks and genetic mechanisms share significant similarities, Drosophila affords us a fast, economical and ethical model in which to perform behavioral-genetic experimentation. Our ultimate goal is to use the Drosophila model system in order to understand important clues, at the molecular level, of how the human brain and memory works.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 17, 2016
- Source ID
- HR00111510002
Entities
People
- Giovanni Bosco
Organizations
- Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency